


Christmas

by DangerRollins



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Carl is a somewhat angry teenager with a crush, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Multi, its what we deserve, judith is adorable but whats new, negan is negan so theres a warning for ya, rick is determined to have a perfect christmas, some characters tagged are just mentioned, who even needs a good summary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 06:24:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13048335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerRollins/pseuds/DangerRollins
Summary: (Almost) Christmas in the Grimes house.





	Christmas

"I can't today, dad, I have plans with Ron and Enid!" Carl groaned as he tried to peer around his dad to see the TV. Rick shifted so that he was still blocking Carl's view, which caused the boy to let out a dramatic sigh and squeeze his eyes shut. "You've been saying that for the last week and you and I both know that you don't have plans with Ron and Enid. You have plans to sneak off to Enid's house and dry hump her for an hour before high tailing it home and pretending yall went to see a movie." Rick rolled his eyes as he placed his hands on his hips.

Carl's eyes snapped open as he heard the blunt statement. He wanted to argue, but he didn't want to lie to Rick, not when he was already onto him. "We don't--It's not dry humping, don't say it like that, that makes it sound so pathetic." Carl grumbled.

"It **is**." Negan inserted himself into the conversation as he walked out of the kitchen wearing nothing but an apron and some oven mitts, holding a tray of cookies that were fresh out of the oven. Carl closed his eyes again, throwing himself face first into the couch. All he'd wanted to do was watch a nice movie and then head out with his friends, but clearly, that wasn't happening.

"How many times have I asked you not to walk around naked when Carl's here?" Rick huffed. Negan raised his brows as he bent over to set the cookies down on the table, making Rick thankful that his son was too busy being dramatic to see anything because he certainly would've gotten a good view had he been looking. "Well, I must be fucking hallucinating because I sure as shit thought that I had the decency to throw on an apron before leaving the kitchen just to avoid that god damn beady-eyed little glare you always give me--Yeah, that's the one--" Negan pointed two of his fingers at Rick. "--When you don't get your god damned way...Oh, look at this. I did." He poked at the stiff and uncomfortable apron that he'd been polite enough to put on, and narrowed his eyes at Rick.

"Your ass is hanging out and I can see your junk from here." Rick growled.

"Well, fuck, Rick, of **course** you can! I'm hung like a horse and that is **not** my fault so--"

"Can I go? Please?" Carl chimed in. "No." Rick shook his head. "We have two weeks until Christmas and we've put shit off long enough, we need to get it done. Christmas is the most wonderful holiday there is and we should feel blessed to be spending it together! Carl, you're going to do what I told you, you're going to call and cancel your plans with your friends and you're gonna hang around the house today with me and Negan, and we're gonna decorate and have a good damn time doing it, okay? And Negan, you're going to put some pants on and you're going to do your part as well."

"And you're going to stand around barking orders at us like you're some kind of prison warden or something." Carl muttered under his breath, earning a look from Rick. Before the man could say anything, Negan was talking once again. "Do my part? **Do my part**?" The man questioned, a dry laugh escaping his throat. "I've done my god damn part! Your god damn part, his god damn part, her god damn part--Hell, I don't think there's any parts left, except for mine which I will **gladly** let you do--" Carl tried to pretend he didn't hear the sexual innuendo and continued to pout. "--I'm the only one pulling his god damn weight around here, as far as I'm concerned, and I don't think you realize that."

Rick stared at the man for a few moments, trying to see if he had anything else to say because he had a habit of cutting people off with yet another nonsensical speech when they began to say anything. When Rick was sure he was done, he crossed his arms over his chest and stared Negan down. "What have you done?"

"I made fucking cookies." Negan pointed at his half done cookies which were decorated terribly and then looked at a still unimpressed looking Rick.

"And?"

"Well, hell, I did the most important part, you two can handle the rest."

Carl, Rick and Negan all knew damn well that Negan was just trying to slither his way out of having to spend his day decorating the house and acting all holly jolly with his family instead of watching TV, eating too many potato chips, and drinking too much beer, as he'd originally planned to do. If Judith was here instead of napping upstairs, she'd know it too.

"Let me repeat myself." Rick huffed. "We are going to decorate this house. Together. We're gonna get into the Christmas spirit. Together. We're going to have a good day. Together. We're not going to whine and complain, we're not going to argue and we're not going to spoil the fun. Now, get some clothes on." Rick's tone was low and his voice was quiet and seemingly calm, but they both knew better. "As a matter of fact, Carl, you go change too. We're all wearing our Christmas sweaters--" Rick was cut off by loud groans from both his husband and his son, but his glare shut them both up in no time. "I'll go get Judith up and dressed."

Rick high tailed it up the stairs, a bounce in his step as a smile crossed his face. Whatever enthusiasm his family lacked, he managed to pick up the slack as he had plenty of his own. Christmas was a good two weeks away, but he wanted to get started. They were going to decorate the house, bake lots of goods, take family photos, watch Christmas movies together, listen to Christmas songs together, and most importantly, they were going to make good memories together.

Christmas was Rick's favorite holiday, yeah, but that wasn't why he was trying so hard to make everything perfect and pushing his family so hard. This time last year, he didn't care about anything as simple as decorating or baking cookies at all, and he went shopping for Christmas gifts two days before the holiday came. But that was last year, and this year was different.

Four months ago, Negan and Rick had gotten married. It'd only taken them a year, and they'd considered waiting longer, but they couldn't. They wanted to be with each other forever and always and, so, they got married as soon as they could. The wedding had been perfect, all their friends and family showing up and having the times of their lives. The honeymoon had been even greater, just Negan and Rick going at it like two rabbits. Life had been pretty good.

Things with Lori hadn't ended so well. Six years ago, they'd gotten divorced, and Rick had been depressed for a long time after. Even when he began to act like himself again, he never became even just half as happy as he used to be. He'd sulked around for a long time, spending all his days with his son and daughter and trying his best to appear okay for them, but after the divorce, he quit doing simple things that happy families do.

Then, enter Negan. The fucker made Rick feel brand fucking new, helped him fully recover from his heartbreak and somehow managed to make Rick fall in love with him along the way. Now, here Rick was, trying to make up for all the missed time. All the Decembers they'd spent not decorating, not being festive at all for that matter. All the Christmas days they'd spent quietly opening one or two gifts and then going their own separate ways for the day. He wanted this Christmas to be bigger and better. He wanted it to be perfect. So, it would be.

***

An hour later and Carl had called his friends, explaining that he wouldn't be able to hang out with them on this perfectly good Saturday because his dad had gone nuts and demanded that they get into the Christmas spirit, Rick had woken up a fussy Judith, somewhat regretting it as she gave him an earful, yelling at the top of her lungs about how important naps could be and he absolutely regretted all those times he'd preached the same thing to her because it was clear that she was just using his words against him now, Negan had...Well, he'd gone into he and Rick's room with intentions of finding some pants to put on, but he'd sat on the bed for a moment as he thought of where a clean pair might be--Rick had tons of pants just on fucking display in the closet and in the drawers, but Negan couldn't comfortably fit any of them since Rick was a few inches shorter than him and his pants would most certainly give Negan an unbearable wedgie, and since Rick was on strike, refusing to do anyone's laundry but his own and Judith's since Carl and Negan were such pigs and refused to even attempt to hide the jizz stains in their crusty ass underwear (Rick's words not Negan's--He happened to think his underwear were the exact opposite of crusty) and Negan was too lazy to do laundry, he was out of clean clothes to go on his ass--and then he'd made himself just a tad bit too comfortable, and soon enough, small snores were escaping his throat as drool trickled down the side of his mouth and he curled himself up into a ball.

When Rick had found him, looking like a fat cat curled up in the middle of their bed, he poked the man harshly in the side to wake him and ordered him to get dressed like he was supposed to in the first place. Negan begrudgingly did so, unwilling to argue. He managed to find an almost clean pair of jeans that almost fit him lying under their bed. It'd have to do.

They'd all changed into their Christmas sweaters, Rick's being black and having a picture of Santa and a bunch of elves on it, Carl's being green and having Rudolph on it with the nose made of yarn instead of just printed onto the shirt, Negan's being bright blue and covered in red ornaments and white snowflakes, and Judith's being red with snowmen and reindeer covering it. She refused to wear hers without also wearing her blue pajama pants with pictures of Rudolph all over them, so she could match her brother, and Rick thought it was adorable so he didn't argue.

Judith had still been fussy when they'd all sat down for a quick and healthy snack, but she quickly calmed down once Negan snagged her from Rick's arms. "I know how you feel, darling, he woke me up too." He'd grumbled.

"He did?"

"Yes, he did. We'll make him pay for it later, I promise."

That's all she needed to hear in order to calm down, and Rick figured he'd be the victim of a petty crime committed by Negan and her soon enough, but he tried not to focus on that.

After their snack was finished, it was time to get to work.

Negan was sure to keep Judith close to him, in his arms at all times because he knew that meant he wouldn't be asked to do any heavy lifting all that often. As long as he was attending to her, he couldn't be forced to climb any ladders and hang any lights, or climb under the tree to straighten it in the tree stand. His plan was a good one, but Carl caught on quickly and took it upon himself to snatch the little girl from Negan and busy himself with her. Negan bit his tongue and narrowed his eyes, trying not to swear around the little angel.

"Good, your hands are free. Come on outside and help me set the sleigh and reindeer up." Rick grinned, pulling Negan along as he spoke. Negan shot Carl the bird when he was sure Judith wasn't looking.

***

Carl wasn't having the worst time that he could be having, having to spending the day with Negan and his dad and all, but it could be better. For starters, he could be at Enid's house dry humping—no, that sounded pathetic—getting **close** to almost doing the dirty with her...Nope. Still pathetic.

Instead he's stuck here, listening to Christmas music that's going to drive him insane sooner or later. "Do you even know what the word theme means, Negan?" Rick rolls his eyes as he snatches the bright blue decorations off the tree. Negan sulks, upset that his hard work was being demolished right in front of his eyes. It'd taken him a whole three minutes to get those two ornaments onto the tree, and now he'd have to start all over. "Red, silver, red, silver, nowhere in that pattern is there baby blue."

"Well, why do we have baby blue ornaments if we're not gonna use them?" Negan questions, crossing his arms over his chest. "The theme was baby blue and white last time we decorated. " Rick defends. "We could still use them, but not on this tree. On the smaller ones that we put in our rooms, maybe?"

"About that...A bit excessive isn't it? There are six Christmas trees in this house. Isn't that a bit much?" Negan raises a brow and tilts his head in a knowing fashion. Aside from the larger than life Christmas tree now taking up a shit ton of space in the living room, Rick had also bought a small tree for each of their bedrooms, the bathroom, and the kitchen.

"They make the whole house smell fresh, outdoorsy, like Christmas." Rick's voice is pleading as he begs Negan to understand the importance of the decorations.

Negan holds his hands up in defense and shrugs his shoulders. He begrudgingly picks up a silver ornament and scoffs as he places it in the spot where the blue one had been just moments ago. "Daddy, I wanna put the angel on top." Judith reminds Rick for the fourth time in the last ten minutes. Rick chuckles at her eagerness—At least somebody is as excited as he is—and then hands her another small ornament out of the box.

"I'll let you put it up there, sweetheart, I promise."

She grinned and stuck her tongue out at Carl who she'd figured wanted to do it just as much as she had. He didn't, but he played along, allowing her to think she'd won. "I'll do it next Christmas, and you won't be able to stop me." He smirked. She shrugged her shoulders and busied herself with decorating the bottom of the tree. "We'll see." She muttered.

They continued decorating in a peaceful silence, and soon enough, the large tree was covered from top to bottom in beautiful ornaments, lights, and tinsel. When everything else was done, Negan picked Judith up and let her place the angel on the very top just as they'd promised she'd be able to. She wore a proud smile after doing her important job, the most important one, Rick had told her.

The sound of the doorbell ringing flowed through the house and Rick smiled larger than he had all day (and that was saying something) and watched as Carl and Negan looked at each other, wearing confused facial expressions. Neither of them had invited anyone over, and Rick had been hellbent on spending the day together as a family so he probably hadn't either. "We're not dealing with anymore Girl Scouts. Last time, that little girl left with two hundred dollars and I was stuck with more raisin cookies than I'd ever wanted to eat." Negan grumbled. He'd been scammed out of his money. It wasn't his fault, the girl was no older than six, she'd been missing a front tooth, and she'd gotten all teary-eyed when he'd told her to fuck off.

"It's not Girl Scouts." Rick laughed. "Beth is just in time."

Carl's eyebrows shot up and he took a sudden step back as if he'd been shoved by some invisible force. "Beth?!" He whisper yelled. "Maggie's sister, Beth?"

Glenn and Maggie were good friends to the Grimes', so, Carl was used to seeing them around, but Beth was Maggie's younger sister and she didn't come around as often. She was closer to Carl's age, although she was a few years older, and she'd gone off to college two years ago which prevented him from seeing her all that often, not that he was complaining. He'd had a crush on her since the day he met her, and who wouldn't? She had beautiful blonde hair, soft and delicate looking skin, and big blue eyes that made him melt every time he stared into them. Every time she was around he was reduced to a pathetic, spluttering mess, and he always managed to embarrass himself in front of her.

"I need to call Enid." He mumbled to himself, running a hand through his hair. When Enid was around, he didn't think of Beth so much. She was just a crush, Enid, however, was Carl's girlfriend and he really liked her. Maybe even loved her, but he didn't know for sure, yet.

Carl could only hope that Beth had lost all her hair or had moles developing on her face, or **something** to make her less attractive to him, but he knew he probably wasn't that lucky.

Negan let out a hearty chuckle as he watched the teenager pissing his pants before the front door even opened. He loved when Beth was around! She always made Carl turn into a silent, shy, and dare he say, polite, young man. Negan wished she could be around more.

"Why is she here?" Carl managed to choke out. "You know she went to college to study up on photography. We need a photographer...She's not charging too much." Rick shrugged.

Carl puffed out his cheeks and inhaled through his nose. She was going to see him in this ridiculous damn Christmas sweater, and he couldn't imagine his life getting any worse than this.

"I'm moving out." He hissed. "The first chance I get."

"Well, Hell, Carl, we've been looking forward to you saying that for months! You don't know how hard it is to bone your old man with you hanging around here like some kind of antisocial nerd, no kind of friends anywhere—"

Rick elbowed Negan in the side to stop him from blabbering. Carl was already pissed and there was no need to poke the baby bear. Besides, he didn't want Negan talking about boning around Judith. She'd already picked up on some of their slang, leading to some very awkward conversations.

"I've been hanging out with Ron and Enid a lot lately." Carl defended himself.

"Open the door, daddy, I wanna see Beth!" Judith demanded, tugging at Rick's hand to get him to walk quicker. She loved Beth! The older girl was always nice, always brought treats and presents for Judith, and she always had interesting stories to tell.

"I can't believe this is happening." Carl hissed as he rubbed down his hair. "I'm going to kill dad."

"Oh, calm down, little serial killer. It's not like you had a chance with her to begin with. She could see you ass naked covered in shit and piss, or she could see you dressed like one of those rich assholes you see in the movies running around in suits that are too fucking tight and diamond god damn underwear--Makes no difference, she wouldn't like you either way!" Negan patted Carl's shoulder twice before walking toward the door to greet their guest. Carl sighed and muttered a quiet 'Thanks' before trudging in the same direction the rest of his family had gone in.

***

Carl side eyed Beth from across the room, keeping as much distance between them as physically possible. Rick had made her a nice cup of hot chocolate and she was currently sitting on the couch between Rick and Judith, talking about how college was going for her and what she planned on doing after she was done with school and--All that bullshit that parents forced kids to talk about. She didn't seem to mind, genuinely excited about her future, and it made Carl sick. Why was she so perfect?

"I've always said I want to move to London, but I don't know if I could do it." She grinned.

"Why not?" Rick chuckled. "London is a beautiful place, from what I hear."

"Yeah, but I don't know if I could move across the world, away from my family. I'd miss Maggie and Glenn, and I'd definitely miss baby Hershel. I can't even think about saying goodbye to my dad...I wish I could pack them all up and take them with me." She giggled.

"What about us?" Judith pouted.

"Well, of course, I'd miss Y'all! Especially you!" Beth rubbed the little girl's hair down before letting out a content sigh. "I guess I don't have to worry about it so much right now, anyway. I've still got a few more years in college, and I'm definitely not gonna have the money to go **anywhere** as soon as I get out."

"Who knows. Maybe you'll get to take some pictures for some rich saps and sucker them out of some cash." Negan shrugged. "If you can't do that, there are other ways. When I was younger, I found this small club that was looking for men with big di--"

" **Negan**!" Rick hissed. Beth had known Negan for a while now, considering he and Rick had been together for a good while and she'd met the man a few times, but Rick still didn't want the older man scaring their guest away with stories of how he'd been a male stripper when he was younger. Plus, Judith was listening closely and hanging on to his every word. Rick didn't want either of his kids listening to Negan telling his stripper stories and getting any ideas. Carl had already scared the shit out of him once, listening to Negan speak about how much money he made just dancing around in his underwear, same as he would in his room, in front of people. The young boy had a thoughtful look on his face the whole time Negan had been talking, and then it was like a lightbulb went off in his head. Rick had shut that shit down in a second, and then Negan got a scolding like no other.

"I think I'm just gonna try the first option out." Beth laughed. "If that doesn't work, I might have to go back to being a waitress." She sulked at the idea of that. She hated waitressing. It was the worst job she could ever think of having.

"Well, you know, you could work down at the station. You could do paperwork or something. Pays decent enough." Rick offered. "You're a peach--Everyone at the station is always talking about your family's farm and your name comes up quite often. We'd happily give you a job there."

"I don't know. I don't wanna be picky, but I think I'd like to stay as far away from the station as possible. I don't like...Crime?" She shrugged. Carl cleared his throat and shifted in his seat, catching everyone's attention. "I'm super excited to take these pictures. Can we start now?" His voice was monotonous and it made Rick send him a glare. He didn't want Carl being rude to Beth and scaring her off, though by now, she was used to it. She knew how Carl felt about her and how he dealt with it. She ignored him, mostly.

"Sure! The sooner I get these pictures taken, the sooner I get my pay, which by the way, should include a few of those Christmas cookies you always make, Rick." She smirked. He chuckled at her before shaking his head. "Negan made the cookies this time."

Negan grinned proudly and nodded. He scooped Judith up and started walking toward the stairs where their little photo shoot would take place. Rick took this time to speak lowly to Beth. "That means, you should probably leave them where they're at if you don't want food poisoning."

***

They'd spent an entire hour and a half doing various poses in various places and now, finally, they were done. Carl thought he was going to die, but he didn't, he somehow managed to survive.

Now, they all sat around watching a Christmas movie in the living room, Beth too close to Carl for his comfort, although she was on the floor a few inches away from him, playing with Judith's hair.

Negan and Rick were snuggling on the couch, enveloped in a soft blanket, Rick trying to discreetly swat Negan's wandering hands away from his lower region.

The only thing that made the older man stop was Judith getting bored of Beth playing with her hair and walking toward them, clearly sleepy from the long day they'd had. "Papa?" She muttered, climbing onto Negan's lap. He hummed. "When are we gonna open gifts?"

"It's not actually Christmas." He chuckled.

And yeah, she already knew that, Rick knew she knew that, Negan knew she knew that, everyone knew she knew that, and they saw right through her. She was trying to be cute, to coax them into something, but who knows exactly what her angle was.

"Yeah, but, theres gifts under the tree already." She stated. There it was. There were about nine gifts under the tree, Rick having wrapped them all some days ago. He'd eagerly placed them under the tree not long after Beth had arrived. "So, we can open them. At least one?" She stared directly into Negan's eyes, not even bothering with Rick. She knew he'd tell her no in a second, far more used to her puppy dog eyes and pouty lips than Negan was.

"I don't think we're supposed to, sweetheart." He mumbled half-heartedly as he stared at her. She let out a small sigh and looked down, clearly trying to appear sad. "Rick..." He grumbled. "Come on, it's Christmas. Almost. Kind of."

"Negan--"

"Please!" He whined. "Look at her!"

Rick rolled his eyes as he playfully pushed the little girl's head to the side, causing her to let out a giggle before quickly trying to appear sad again. "Yeah, I see." He said sarcastically. "You're not fooling anyone, young lady...But opening one gift won't kill you, I guess."

She was off Negan's lap and under the tree before Rick could finish talking. Negan grumbled something about being used as he and Rick remained on the couch, watching intently as she dug around to find the biggest box with her name on it. For once, Carl wore a genuine smile as he slid his way toward the tree as well. "If she gets to open one, I do too." And they couldn't argue with that.

"There isn't a gift for you under there, yet, but you'll have one soon." Rick grinned at Beth as she watched the two kids excitedly pulling gifts out from under the tree.

"That's alright, I'd feel bad if you guys got me a gift anyways. I haven't started Christmas shopping yet." She laughed.

Carl helped Judith unwrap her gift and smiled as she jumped up and down in excitement. It was a doll that she'd been talking about for at least three months now.

After helping her get the doll out of the box, he moved on to open his own gift. He'd chosen a smaller one, hoping that it was what he'd been asking for for a while now. Rick wanted to argue, it was Carl's biggest gift and he was supposed to open it on Christmas day, but he stopped himself. Carl looked so happy and he didn't wanna ruin it.

"YES!" The teen exclaimed as he pulled out the new phone. "THANK GOD!"

Rick chuckled and buried his head in the crook of Negan's neck, watching as his two kids fumbled around with their presents. "Today was fun." He mumbled. Negan leaned down to press a kiss on his temple before looking back at the young Grimes'. "Hate to admit it, but yes, it was." He smirked. "Day was great, night will be better."

Rick shook his head and let out a small chuckle as he swatted Negan's hand away again. "Quit acting so desperate."

"I **am** desperate. I need my balls suckled or some shit. It's been like two days since we've had sex. Might as well have been a century...You know, I know I said I didn't want anything specific for Christmas, but I'm just saying I would not object to coming down the stairs only to see you sitting under the Christmas tree, on your knees, looking all obedient and shit with some reindeer ears on, and maybe some long elf socks...And nothing but."

"Shut up, Negan."

**Author's Note:**

> I ORIGINALLY PLANNED TO TITLE THIS 'Bad Dream' AND IT WAS GONNA END ALL SAD WITH CARL WAKING UP AND REALIZING THAT CHRISTMAS WASN'T HAPPENING AND THEY'RE STILL IN THE APOCOLYPSE AND ALL THAT, BUT I JUST COULD NOT FUCKING DO IT I MEAN THERE'S GOTTA BE SOME HAPPINESS SOMEWHERE FOR CARL, IT AINT HAPPENING IN THE SHOW SO I GUESS I GOTTA WRITE IT! lmaooo I will write some angsty shit soon enough, though. Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
